Owed to Joy

Slip the new pop single, A Song of Joy, on the turntable. Surprise. There, for everyone to hear, is the famous unison recitative for cellos and double basses that opens the Ode to Joy from the last movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Pause. Then comes the languorous twang of a guitar, and a voice begins to sing in accented English:

Come sing a song of joy,

For peace shall come, my brother, Sing, sing a song of joy,

For men shall love each other . . .

The singer of A Song of Joy is Miguel Rios, 26, a successful teeny-bopper idol in Spain who originally recorded it in Spanish, English and Italian. When A Song began popping up in Holland, Portugal, Chile, France and Canada, A & M Records bought the rights. "At first," says one company executive, "no one exactly went wild over it. But we kept listening, and we realized we had something very special."

Or maybe it was just that 1970 happens to be the 200th anniversary of Beethoven's birth. A Song of Joy perpetrates structural mayhem upon the original score, and Rios' adenoidal crooning makes Dean Martin sound like Cesare Siepi. Still, it does contain a genuine chunk of Beethoven and someone is definitely listening. From Mobile to Manhattan, pop radio stations are giving A Song of Joy heavy air play. The record is high on Billboard's Hot 100 chart and still climbing. As for Rios, A & M will release his new LP this week and is sponsoring him on a U.S. tour. That should give his fans all the Joy they need.

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